Mar 13 1987
From The Space Library
NASA announced that its fiscal year 1988 budget request did not include funding for the launching of the Mars Observer mission in 1990. Under pressure from the scientific community, NASA considered spending about $130 million for the launching of the Mars Observer from an Air Force Titan rocket. The Agency said it planned to launch the spacecraft in 1992 from the Space Shuttle. (NASA Release 87-32; LA Times, Mar 14/87; NY Times, Mar 15/87)
NASA scientists successfully ordered the Voyager 2 space probe, which was some 2 billion miles away from Earth, to fire its thrusters changing the spacecraft's course for its 1989 encounter with the planet Neptune. The course was altered so that Voyager 2, launched on August 20, 1977, would avoid the debris that might be orbiting the planet. The spacecraft was expected to arrive on August 24, 1989, within 3,100 miles of cloud tops above Neptune's north pole and was expected to pass within 25,000 miles of Neptune's moon Triton. (B Sun, Mar 14/87; P Inq, Mar 15/87)
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